Originally Posted by
frappant
Well I don't know the AC rules.
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But I had to rely on what she said was AC policy.
Originally Posted by
frappant
Because an AC agent told me that I didn't have enough time to connect and that if I don't make it it's my problem. They may not reschedule me on another YVR-BNE flight, which also doesn't run every day so it may not have been available for another day or two.
She said if I risked taking the AC flight and didn't make it, AC wasn't going to be responsible.
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Certainly UA didn't say I would be able to make the connection. They didn't have any space on flights to BNE or SYD that day so they proposed their earlier flight for SFO-YVR to have a better chance to make the connection.
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Who here would have accepted the "rebooked flights" as you call it, which is a downgrade from business to coach on a 12-13 hour flight?
On this site of all places?
Sounds like your issue is with Air Canada then.
Originally Posted by
frappant
But by the time the cancellation occurred, according to the AC agent it was on Nov 5, I had boarded both AC flights.
So why is it automatically canceled but it ignores the fact that I boarded both AC flights?
Because airlines don't care what you
did take, but rather what you didn't take. As posted above, rule 5 of the contract of carriage only cares about what flights you had space held for you on and didn't take. When that situation exists, the rest of the PNR gets cancelled. This is, among other reasons (tying up inventory), why it is increasingly difficult to get an agent to "protect you" on a different flight in IRROPs and why UA has basically prohibited their agents from engaging in that practice any longer. Because if one of those flights ends up getting left in the PNR unused, it will become a no show and cancel all the remaining space out.
I had a flight with one of my parents to the UK on BA a couple years ago. It was a running connection in LHR and we were the last to board and they closed the gate immediately after scanning our boarding passes. They didn't expect us to make it and had space held for us on the flight leaving an hour later. The next morning one of us had no return flights in our PNR. It was a 5 minute text conversation with BA to get it restored. But BA wasn't going to do that if it was never brought to their attention, and it would have been a lot harder had I waited until the airport and the space was no longer available. You need to be your own advocate which means dealing with things as soon as they come up, not putting them off.
This is a refrain I have to repeat all the time here. Making airfare more accessible to the end consumer did not change the airlines historical practice with regards to agency. UA is not your travel agent, you are. No one is babysitting your PNR once you're off the phone. You as the traveler, or your agent, are responsible for what you have requested to have reserved. Both the app and united.com always reflect the most current set of flights in the UA PNR. And the UA SFO-YVR flight would have been showing there, even if you didn't receive a separate confirmation (and wouldn't have because it wasn't ticketed). Again, a reservation and ticket are two separate components.
I don't get FT sometimes. If you all had a positioning flight to a long-haul transpacific flight that might get delayed you would all encourage people to proactive and find a solution. In this, the OP tried to be proactive, AC couldn't be reacbed, UA did their best to help, and ultimately screwed up the reservation.
People's responses here aren't so much about being proactive, but leaving things unfinished. OP started working with UA, was told space was being held, and just never followed up after they made the Air Canada flight. And when they were notified there was an issue ("your reservation has been cancelled"), instead of being proactive and trying to figure out more they ignored it until they got to the airport for a return.
As OP says, there was no way to know they actually altered the ticket without any sort of notification. OP boarded all of the outbound flights and arrived to the destination without a hint that the returns would be affected. So, as far as OP knows, everything with the reservation is fine.
Not sure what you're reading, but OP was notified that an issue had occurred once the return was cancelled. Beyond that, the PNR reflects the most current set of flights UA has reserved for the passenger, and the UA SFO-YVR flight would have been showing in there even if it wasn't ticketed.
I'm not sure what sort of magic we expect flyers to know when dealing with such opaque and arcane systems. Seems like UA needs to own up to screwing up the reservation and cancelling it with no reason. The fact that is a reward flight shouldn't mater but alas, we somehow all accept that award flights get second class service when things go wrong.
UA did, they rebooked OP on the next available option on their own metal. Which is more than they're required to do. The only thing I'm taking away from this, is that UA should just not try and help their passengers when an OA encounters IRROPs, which an increasing number of agents seem to be doing.